Saturday, March 27, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Cassini reveals Saturn's raucous rings
Last Updated: Thursday, March 18, 2010 | 5:38 PM ET Comments41Recommend64
CBC News
Images from the satellite show that Saturn's rings shift and tumble, changing their structure on very short time scales for astronomy: years, months or even days.
"This rambunctious system gives us a new feel for how an early solar system might have behaved," said Linda Spilker, a Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"This kind of deep, rich data can only be collected by an orbiting spacecraft, and we look forward to the next seven years around Saturn bringing even more surprises," she said.
Two studies of the Cassini data were published this week in the journal Science, one on the rings and one on Saturn's atmosphere.
The objects that made up the planet's rings are composed mostly of water ice, and collisions in the rings are routine, leaving trails of debris, the probe found. The chunks of ice are contaminated with a reddish substance that could be rusty iron compounds or organic molecules.
Cassini's data revealed how gravity from Saturn's moon and the planet itself toss and pull the micro-satellites around, preventing them from coalescing and forming moons themselves.
When sunlight hit Saturn's rings edge-on during the planet's equinox, Cassini saw that rings that were normally tens of metres thick were flipped up as high as mountains.
"It has been amazing to see the rings come to life before our very eyes, changing even as we watch, being colourful and taking on a tangible, 3-D nature," said Jeff Cuzzi, lead author of the ring study.
The scientists also looked at the magnetic fields surrounding the planet and found an unexpected source for the charged particles there.
Cassini found that the biggest source of charged particles is Saturn's moon Enceladus, not the sun or Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Enceladus also sprays water vapour and other gases from its south pole.
"We learned from Cassini that the Saturnian magnetosphere is swimming in water," said Tamas Gombosi of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "This is unique in the solar system and makes Saturn's plasma environment particularly fascinating."
The Cassini spacecraft is the largest and most complex interplanetary spacecraft ever built. It's the result of a co-operative project that includes NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The probe arrived in Saturn's neighbourhood in 2004, but it's not the first to look at the ringed planet. The Voyager missions flew by Saturn in the early 1980s.
Cassini is loaded with a dozen instruments, everything from cameras that take pictures in visible light to radar that can peer into the depths of planets' atmospheres. It can measure magnetic fields and analyze the quantity and composition of dust particles.
"Cassini has answered questions we were not even smart enough to ask when the mission was planned and raised a lot of new ones," Cuzzi said.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/03/18/tech-space-saturn-cassini.html#ixzz0jKrDT9l1
Saturn Will Explode Tomorrow ( A fake story)
Friday, 19 March 2010
About To Be Sliced Up Like A Tomato
Houston, TX-- The planet Saturn is on fire and it will explode on Saturday. NASA scientists released this grim news early today after a devastating accident involving the Cassini probe. If the planet explodes as expected, there is a good chance Saturn's rings will strike the Earth, slicing it in half.
The Cassini probe has been in Saturn's orbit since 2004. During a routine flyby of the planet yesterday, a terrible accident happened. Some moron at NASAsent the probe too close to Saturn's hydrogenatmosphere, and the whole planet caught on fire. The fire is expected to reach Saturn's solid hydrogen core tomorrow. Once that happens, it will explode. Saturn's detached rings will then fly through space "like a buzz-saw from Hell", according to NASA spokesman Dr. Karl Saygun.
Saturn's rings are extremely thin and razor sharp. They are expected to hit the Earth's equator on Easter Sunday.
"The rings will slice the Earth in half, just like a butcher knife slices a tomato." said Dr. Saygun. "There is no hope at all." he said grimly.
Dr. Saygun did note the poetic justice of it all.
"Well, I--I mean we-- blew up Saturn, and now we have to pay for it. At least it's an interesting way for the world to end." said the moron.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
The nation’s public school curriculum may be in for a Texas-sized overhaul, if the Lone Star state’s influential recommendations for changes to social studies, economics and history textbooks are fully ratified later this spring. Last Friday, in a 10-to-5 vote split right down party lines, the Texas State Board of Education approved some controversial right-leaning alterations to what most students in the state—and by extension, in much of the rest of the country—will be studying as received historical and social-scientific wisdom. After a public comment period, the board will vote on final recommendations in May.
Don McElroy, who leads the board’s powerful seven-member social conservative bloc, explained that the measure is a way of "adding balance" in the classroom, since "academia is skewed too far to the left." And the board's critics have labeled the move an attempt by political "extremists" to "promote their ideology."
The revised standards have far-reaching implications because Texas is a huge market leader in the school-textbook industry. The enormous print run for Texas textbooks leaves most districts in other states adopting the same course materials, so that the Texas School Board effectively spells out requirements for 80 percent of the nation’s textbook market. That means, for instance, that schools in left-leaning states like Oregon and Vermont could soon be teaching from textbooks that are short on references to Ted Kennedy but long on references to conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly.
Here are some of the other signal shifts that the Texas Board endorsed last Friday:
- A greater emphasis on “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s.” This means not only increased favorable mentions of Schlafly, the founder of the antifeminist Eagle Forum, but also more discussion of the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation, the National Rifle Association and Newt Gingrich's Contract With America.
- A reduced scope for Latino history and culture. A proposal to expand such material in recognition of Texas’ rapidly growing Hispanic population was defeated in last week’s meetings—provoking one board member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out in protest. "They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist," she said of her conservative colleagues on the board. "They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world."
- Changes in specific terminology. Terms that the board’s conservative majority felt were ideologically loaded are being retired. Hence, “imperialism” as a characterization of America’s modern rise to world power is giving way to “expansionism,” and “capitalism” is being dropped in economic material, in favor of the more positive expression “free market.” (The new recommendations stress the need for favorable depictions of America’s economic superiority across the board.)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Newly discovered alien world looks like Jupiter
This is the first planet discovered outside our solar system that resembles planets within our system.
Fri, Mar 19 2010 at 12:31 AM EST
Scientists have long looked for a planet outside of our own solar system that would resemble our own cluster of worlds. Space.com reports that researchers have found a planet outside our solar system that is about the size of Jupiter and situated at an orbit similar to Mercury's.
EMAIL
Facebook
Stumble
Tweet
DiggRelated Links
The newfound exoplanet was discovered by the French space agency CNES's CoRoT satellite. Dubbed CoRoT-9b by scientists, it may have a more temperate climate than some of the other exoplanets since discovered. This is because CoRoT-9b is farther away than some of the other gas giant planets circling alien stars. Scientists came to this conclusion by tracking the light signature of the planet passing in front of its host star from the perspective of Earth. CoRoT-9b moves relatively slow, so this gave researchers enough time to get a good look at it.
The physical makeup of CoRoT-9b is similar to a planet in our own solar system. Tristan Guillot of the Côte d'Azure Observatory in Nice, France, is a member of the team that discovered this new planet. As he told Space.com,"Like our own giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, the planet is mostly made of hydrogen and helium … And it may contain up to 20 Earth masses of other elements, including water and rock at high temperatures and pressures."
Further, CoRoT-9b has a low eccentricity orbit, which means that its orbit remains fairly stable. Scientists believe this allows the exoplanet to have a more temperate climate. Didier Queloz of the Observatory of the University of Geneva in Switzerland is another member of the team that discovered the planet. As he told Space.com, "Our analysis has provided more information on CoRoT-9b than for other exoplanets of the same type."
Does this mean NASA should gear up a shuttle and take a trip to CoRoT-9b to check for life? Researchers say the surface temperature is somewhere between minus 4 and 360 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 and 160 degrees Celsius), so, the team might want to bring a jacket.
Big Bang project may delay space shuttle's final flight
Scientists are still testing a possible design flaw in the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which could lead to clues about the beginning of the universe.
By Mark K. Matthews and Robert Block
March 13, 2010
E-mail
Print
Reporting from Washington and Cape Canaveral, Fla. - Possible problems with a $2-billion physics experiment could delay the space shuttle's final flight and further complicate White House plans to retire the orbiter fleet this year.
At issue is a van-sized device called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which scientists hope will tell them more about the universe and its beginnings. The AMS is scheduled to fly aboard Endeavour in July to be installed aboard the International Space Station, but a potential design flaw has forced NASA to consider postponing the mission.
The trouble lies with the experiment's magnets, which are designed to work within a few degrees of absolute zero. The magnets will bend interstellar particles as they flow through the middle of the tube-shaped device; scientists will be able to identify the electronic charge of the particles by how they curve.
Supporters say it's the best tool to find a mysterious
substance called antimatter, which is believed to make up half of the universe.
The experiment will test the Big Bang theory, which says that the universe formed from equal parts of matter and antimatter.
Just about everything known in the universe -- from people to planets -- is composed of matter. But finding antimatter has been difficult because it is destroyed whenever it comes into contact with matter.
Scientists think antimatter particles are present in space and can be observed as they flow through the AMS magnetic field.
But engineers are worried that the AMS may not work as expected when attached to the outside of the space station. Heat from the sun and the station could warm the magnets, which could make them malfunction or shorten the experiment's three-year life span.
Scientists are testing the AMS to gauge the problem, and hope to have results by mid-April. In the meantime, NASA officials are preparing to swap the planned July 29 launch of Endeavour with a September mission that was supposed to be the shuttle's final flight.
"We are evaluating launch options for the STS-134 [Endeavour] flight as prudent planning in case the results of the testing does not come back as expected," NASA spokesman John Yembrick said.
"It is premature to speculate on whether the . . . launch date will slip. Endeavour is still targeted to launch on July 29," he added.
The project's lead scientist would not say how long it will take the AMS team to assess, and potentially fix, the heat problem. But Samuel Ting, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, remained confident that the AMS would be ready this year.
"No matter what, we are going to fly this year," said Ting, a physics professor with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He even expressed hope that the upcoming tests could help engineers find a way to extend the AMS experiment past its three-year life to coincide with new plans to extend station operations to 2020.
Once the AMS is in space, he joked, "You can no longer send a graduate student to fix it."
The project, at Johnson Space Center in Houston, must arrive at Kennedy Space Center in Florida by June 1 to make a July launch.
The White House has budgeted an extra $600 million through Dec. 31 in case shuttle flights slip into the final three months of this year. Administration officials are uncertain what would happen if the AMS flight went into 2011.
Scientists find turbulence in Saturn's rings
March 19, 2010|By David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
(03-19) 11:03 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — The ringed planet Saturn, brilliant jewel of the night sky, has revealed new insights into the behavior of its rings for scientists studying signals from the Cassini spacecraft still flying through the Saturnian neighborhood after six years in orbit.
"We now have the clearest view of the rings' beautiful crystalline structure pasted onto the real night sky," said Jeffrey Cuzzi of NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, leader of the Cassini-Huygens mission. "Gazillions of icy particles are constantly colliding with each other up there as they orbit the planet ... moving as waves under the influence of moonlets we've discovered orbiting inside gaps between the rings."
The tumultuous nature of the particles in Saturn's seven main rings and the gaps between the planet's rings, where those tiny moonlets cause ring edges to wave like ripples on the shorelines of space, are being described today in the journal Science.
Saturn's rings, through even the best of telescopes, look like series of thin flat discs grooved like an old phonograph record. But that's far from the truth: From Cassini's images and data, researchers have determined that each ring is a turbulent collection of orbiting particles - 95 percent water ice glistening in sunlight and the rest some strange kind of rubble tinged in red-brown here and there.
"That color may be some kind of organic materials," said Cuzzi, "but to me it looks like just plain rust - iron oxide. How it got there we don't yet know."
The ice chunks range in size from a few inches to tens of yards. As they orbit the planet, gravity turns some into huge clumps and pulls others apart, and they batter each other chaotically.
Beyond Saturn's major rings, Cassini scientists report they have detected several other faint rings that seem to be composed of minute amounts rubble and "microscopic dust."
The physics involved in their evolution suggests they are similar to the "protoplanetary discs" of rubble that on a much larger scale mark the earliest stages in the formation of the planets in the solar system.
But just how long ago the rings of Saturn formed and where their material came from originally remains a mystery, the scientists say.
The rings and the icy matter they contain are far from stable in their orbits around the planet. Instead, they appear to be changing constantly.
MY WATCHES
I have two watches. One I got for my birthday and for Christmas.
My Armitron Watch
This contains these abilities: Stopwatch, Time 1 & 2 , 5 Alarms, 8 Birthday Alarms and Timer.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
NASA aims for April 5 space shuttle Discovery launch
05:30 PM
Share
Share 
3 
By Karen Bleier, AFP/Getty Images
NASA will run tests later this week to determine whether its safe to fly shuttle Discovery despite valve trouble that cropped up over the weekend during a critical propellant-loading operation at Kennedy Space Center.
The tests, if successful, could provide managers with the data required to prove Discovery could launch as scheduled on April 5 and still fly its International Space Station outfitting mission safely.
Discovery and seven astronauts are scheduled to blast off from launch pad 39A at 6:21 a.m. Eastern April 5, hauling up an Italian cargo carrier filled with science racks and tons of supplies and equipment to the International Space Station. The mission is one of four station outfitting missions remaining before shuttle fleet retirement.
The Discovery launch plans hit a snag late Friday when a helium leak was detected in one of the shuttle's two hump-like orbital maneuvering system pods, which house engines that are used to make large course corrections in orbit. The twin maneuvering engines are used to drop the shuttle out of orbit for atmospheric reentry and landing. Small steering thrusters used for precision piloting also are housed in the pods.
Helium plays a critical role in pushing propellant into the engines and thrusters while maintaining proper pressures within the system. Engineers detected a leak in an isolation valve that separates a helium supply tank from a hydrazine fuel tank in Discovery's right-hand pod. The helium line in question is used to pressurize thrusters in the pod. It appears the valve might have been stuck in the open position, or that it might have a significant leak.
The propellant-loading operation involved pumping monomethyl hydrazine and nitrogen textroxide into separate tanks and filling up the helium supply tank. The operation was completed over the weekend and engineers were able to close the faulty valve after pressurizing the helium tank.
The tests late this week will determine whether two helium regulator valves downstream from the faulty valve are working properly. If so, then the regulator valves would ensure proper pressures would be maintained in the system even if the faulty valve leaked or failed to close during flight.
Knowing whether the regulators are operating properly will be a key factor for managers who must decided whether to fly the shuttle as-is or move Discovery back to its processing hangar for repairs. A decision to roll the shuttle off the pad and remove Discovery from its external tank would cause a significant launch delay. It also would scramble the schedule for the last three shuttle missions, which now are scheduled to launch May 14, July 29 and Sept. 16.
NASA and shuttle fleet operator United Space Alliance will calibrate a test panel over the next several days. The helium system will be brought up to full pressure and engineers will monitor gauges on the panel to determine whether the regulators are operating properly.
By Todd Halvorson, FLORIDA TODAY
%5B2%5D.gif "Calvin and Hobbes (1)")
%5B2%5D.jpg "Calvin and Hobbes (2)")
%5B2%5D.gif "Calvin and Hobbes (3)")
%5B2%5D.jpg "Calvin and Hobbes (4)")
%5B2%5D.jpg "Calvin and Hobbes (5)")
%5B2%5D.jpg "Calvin and Hobbes (6)")
%5B2%5D.gif "Calvin and Hobbes (7)")
%5B2%5D.gif "Calvin and Hobbes (8)")
Friday, March 19, 2010
The tajiri and the maskini ( An African Folktale)
The tajiri ate big meals. He was so stingy that instead of giving the leftovers to the poor people, he gave it to fatten his pig.
The maskini ate simple meals. He had porridge only. He also owned a goat who gave cheese and milk. He preferred eating meals beside the tajiri's kitchen window.(He did it because when he ate his porridge the wafting smells from the kitchen he thought the was eating a feast.)
One day, the tajiri saw the maskini eating his supper beside the tajiri's kitchen window and inhaling the smell. The tajiri was furious. He put the maskini into the village jail.
Next day, the maskini was summoned to go to the court. After deliberation, it was decided that the maskini was just smelling, he was not taking/stealing. Since the tajiri demanded the goat for return, his desires were a disaster and in return the tajiri was permitted to smell the maskini's goat.
Glossary- Word that are Bold
tajiri- In Africa, a rich man.
maskini- In Africa, a poor man.
furious- angry
deliberation- thinking a lot
permitted- allowed
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
NASA finds shrimp dinner on ice beneath Antarctica
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer – Mon Mar 15, 4:05 pm ET
WASHINGTON – In a surprising discovery about where higher life can thrive, scientists for the first time found a shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish frolicking beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet.
Six hundred feet below the ice where no light shines, scientists had figured nothing much more than a few microbes could exist.
That's why a NASA team was surprised when they lowered a video camera to get the first long look at the underbelly of an ice sheet in Antarctica. A curious shrimp-like creature came swimming by and then parked itself on the camera's cable. Scientists also pulled up a tentacle they believe came from a foot-long jellyfish.
"We were operating on the presumption that nothing's there," said NASA ice scientist Robert Bindschadler, who will be presenting the initial findings and a video at an American Geophysical Union meeting Wednesday. "It was a shrimp you'd enjoy having on your plate."
"We were just gaga over it," he said of the 3-inch-long, orange critter starring in their two-minute video. Technically, it's not a shrimp. It's a Lyssianasid amphipod, which is distantly related to shrimp.
The video is likely to inspire experts to rethink what they know about life in harsh environments. And it has scientists musing that if shrimp-like creatures can frolic below 600 feet of Antarctic ice in subfreezing dark water, what about other hostile places? What about Europa, a frozen moon of Jupiter?
"They are looking at the equivalent of a drop of water in a swimming pool that you would expect nothing to be living in and they found not one animal but two," said biologist Stacy Kim of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in California, who joined the NASA team later. "We have no idea what's going on down there."
Microbiologist Cynan Ellis-Evans of the British Antarctic Survey called the finding intriguing.
"This is a first for the sub-glacial environment with that level of sophistication," Ellis-Evans said. He said there have been findings somewhat similar, showing complex life in retreating ice shelves, but nothing quite directly under the ice like this.
Ellis-Evans said it's possible the creatures swam in from far away and don't live there permanently.
But Kim, who is a co-author of the study, doubts it. The site in West Antarctica is at least 12 miles from open seas. Bindschadler drilled an 8-inch-wide hole and was looking at a tiny amount of water. That means it's unlikely that that two critters swam from great distances and were captured randomly in that small of an area, she said.
Yet scientists were puzzled at what the food source would be for these critters. While some microbes can make their own food out of chemicals in the ocean, complex life like the amphipod can't, Kim said.
So how do they survive? That's the key question, Kim said.
"It's pretty amazing when you find a huge puzzle like that on a planet where we thought we know everything," Kim said.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Practice what you preach (A play I wrote)
Leader, Tridib: (forcing) Fight the war, I will see.
Soldiers: But,bu-u
Leader,Tridib: (interrupting) I am your leader and you have to do as I say!
Leader,Tridib: Don’t be scared!
Leader,Tridib: Go fight!, Hurry!, The war will start.
Soldiers :Practice what you preach!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Chile Earthquake March 11: Aftershock Hit at 7.2-magnitude
Chile suffers another earthquake just weeks after the earthquake that devastated the South American nation struck. The latest earthquake hit at a massive 7.2-magnitude aftershock. Aftershocks are considered not usual following an original earthquake of enormous magnitude, according to scientists. The aftershock struck Chile at approximately 11:40 am local time.
The fact that is was bigger than the original Feb. 27 has the hard hit nation on high alert. This massive quake has even surpassed the magnitude of the earthquake that hit Haiti in January. A larger magnitude earthquake is not uncommon, suggests Don Blakeman, a geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey. On Feb 27, Chile experienced the world’s largest 8.8-magnitude earthquake to date just off the coast of the Maule region.
Aftershocks are generally part of the process the original earthquake can generate. Typically, aftershocks tend to be of a lesser magnitude and can involve several smaller aftershocks. With an original quake that was more than an 8 in magnitude "we would expect at least a couple of 7's," Blakeman told LiveScience. Aftershocks are the direct result of the fault readjusting after being ruptured in the original temblor. They tend to occur in the nearby zone of the original earthquake.
According to Blakeman, "the bigger the quake, the larger the aftershock zone." The original earthquake rupture zone was 250 miles (400 kilometers) long, "so it's a very big zone," Blakeman added. The recent aftershock struck almost 93 miles (150 km) southwest of Santiago, the capital of Chile. As aftershocks can last for weeks to months, the latest Chile earthquake may not be the last. "It kind of runs in spells," Blakeman said.
Video of the latest 7.2 magnitude Chile Earthquake.
Space station could operate until 2028, says consortium
Thu Mar 11, 2:46 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – The consortium of agencies building the International Space Station (ISS) wants to see if the orbital outpost can operate until 2028, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Thursday.
"There are no identified technical constraints to continuing ISS operations beyond the current planning horizon of 2015 to at least 2020," it said in a press release after a meeting of ISS partners in Tokyo.
"The partnership is currently working to certify on-orbit elements through 2028," it said.
The Tokyo meeting gathered space agency heads from the United States, which is shouldering the main burden of building the ISS, from Canada, Japan and Russia and as well as from ESA.
Costing a reputed 100 billion dollars, the ISS has been hit by budget overruns and setbacks, including the loss of two of the US space shuttles, used to hoist components into low Earth orbit.
The station is due to be completed this year after a 12-year construction effort.
But its future beyond 2015 has recently been under cloud because of NASA's budget constraints.
That sparked fears within ESA that years of investment will yield little scientific reward before the station is mothballed.
In his draft spending plans for 2011, President Barack Obama pledged to extend the US commitment to the ISS to 2020 or beyond, NASA said in February.
Obama also confirmed the shuttle fleet's phaseout this year, promised help for commercial manned missions in space and dropped the so-called Constellation programme his predecessor George W. Bush announced in 2004 to return Americans to the Moon by 2020.
Friday, March 12, 2010
India and Russia Build Ties With Pacts
NEW DELHI — India and Russia signed a series of agreements on nuclear, space and military issues on Friday, after a visit by Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Related
Mr. Putin’s visit, and the warm reception he received here from his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, represent a warming relationship between nations with a long history of friendship that has been challenged by India’s increasingly cozy ties to the United States.
The agreements pave the way to build at least a dozen more Russian nuclear power plants for an energy-starved India, and to funnel more Russian weapons to India’s military.
The countries also reached agreements to work together on space and fertilizer projects, two crucial areas for India, which has sought to send rockets into space even as its farmers, who make up about 70 percent of the population, struggle to coax subsistence from the soil.
As a pioneer of the Non-Aligned Movement, India was officially neutral in the cold war, but in practical terms it had a much closer relationship with the Soviet Union than it did with the United States, a country it viewed warily for ideological and geopolitical reasons.
In a post-cold-war world, India and Russia remain important allies. India buys the vast majority of its weapons from Russia, and has invested in Russian oil and gas in an effort to guarantee supplies to keep its rapidly growing economy going. The countries also make up half of the BRIC Group of rapidly growing economies, along with Brazil and China.
Mr. Putin met with top political and business leaders, speaking to a group of industrialists in Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi via videoconference.
“Cooperation in high-tech is the priority for us,” Mr. Putin told his audience. “The Russian government is ready to directly support this activity, with the help of additional financial assistance.”
Russia is already building two nuclear power plants here, and Friday’s agreement paves the way for a dozen more. The signing of the nuclear agreement with the United States in 2008 made it possible for India to buy civilian nuclear technology despite its refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Since then firms in the United States, Europe and Russia have been vying to get in on lucrative contracts to build plants in the world’s second fastest growing economy.
New Toys made in 2010
In 2010, lots of new games were made and lots of new versions of game were made. One of them is Monopoly. Hasbro made a new version of Monopoly which you have to build your own game. You will have to join some pieces. (You are allowed to skip some pieces if you want. This version was made to you can also customize your game time limit.)
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
(Unknown)
The biggest TV manufacturers are finally starting to reveal prices for their new 3D TV sets, and believe it or not, several of the new sets will actually cost about the same or even a bit less than last year's equivalent 2D models. That said, there's a catch: The active-shutter LCD glasses that you'll need to watch 3D video cost a pretty penny.Samsung was the first of the big four TV makers to flip its 3D pricing cards over this week; Panasonic is up tomorrow, while Sony and LG will follow in the coming weeks and months.
Samsung's new LED-backlit LCD 3D sets (which start shipping this month) run the gamut from 40 to 55 inches, and they're set to arrive in three separate lines: the "affordable" (well, relatively speaking) LED C7000 series (240Hz refresh rate, Internet widgets, and Ethernet), the mid-range C8000 series (which adds local LED dimming), and the top-of-the-line C9000 line (which comes with its own, snazzy touchscreen remote control).
So, how much are we talking here? Well, expect to spend a whopping $6,999 for the biggest, 55-inch LED C9000, all the way down to $1,999 for the smallest "bargain" set, the 40-inch C7000. (You can check out Samsung's full 3D TV pricing sheet right here.)
Now, as CNET's David Katzmaier points out, those prices are (in general) a few hundred bucks more than the current pricing of last year's equivalent models. For example, Samsung's 2009 46-inch B7000 LCD HDTV is selling on Amazon for about $2,350, or about $250 more than the new, $2,599 46-inch 3D-capable C7000, according to Katzmaier.
That said, keep in mind that the original list price for the 2009 46-inch B7000 was actually $2,999, or about $400 more than this year's new 3D-ready version. And indeed, Amazon has already discounted the new 46-inch C7000 to just $2,339, a tiny bit cheaper than last year's equivalent model.
Of course, we'll have to wait and see how the other big TV manufactures decide to price their 3D TV sets, but if they follow the trend, it may well turn out that you won't be paying much of a premium—if any—for this year's crop of 3D-capable HDTVs, especially once retailers start cutting prices.
BUT ... yep, there's a "but" here ... you will pay a premium for the battery-powered, active-shutter 3D glasses that are required to watch 3D video on Samsung's new sets.
Unlike the disposable 3D glasses you get at most movie theaters, the active-shutter glasses necessary for most 3D TVs work by rapidly opening and closing LCD "shutters" in the left and right lenses, thus ensuring that your left and right eyes are seeing the correct left or right image at precisely the right time. The glasses must also sync themselves with your TV via an infrared sensor.
As I've been warning for months now, these active-shutter 3D glasses won't come cheap, and indeed ... as CNET reports, Samsung will be charging $150 a pair for them. In other words, if you've got a family of four who wants to watch "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" on your new Samsung 3D TV, well ... that'll be $600, please. (And I wouldn't count on Samsung's competitors charging much less.)
Monday, March 8, 2010
Check out this!!
Sorry, I forgot to tell you that I made a blog/website about Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Although Vancouver 2010 is over, you can check out the website. It is olympics2010winter.blogspot.com.
(NO subject)!!!!
Do you love Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Harry Potter, Magic Tree House, Capitol Mysteries, Calendar Mysteries, A-Z Mysteries, or any other books?
If you want to send comments about them, just send a comment for me below. You will have to give email, gender, what book you like, the author of the book and your first name. I will try my best to deliver them to the authors. I will email you if that is possible. Maybe if you get a letter back from the author, I will send it to your email address so give a correct email address!!!
(No subject)!!
Great earthquakes occur once a year, on average. The largest recorded earthquake was the Great Chilean Earthquake of May 22, 1960 which had a magnitude (MW) of 9.5.[6]
The following table lists the approximate energy equivalents in terms of TNT explosive force[7] - though note that the energy here is that of theunderground energy release (i.e. a small atomic bomb blast will not simply cause light shaking of indoor items) rather than the overground energy release. Most energy from an earthquake is not transmitted to and through the surface; instead, it dissipates into the crust and other subsurface structures.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
